Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, September 12, 2016
FCCGH Challenge Fundraiser ends with success–and a great dessert potluck
Thanks to everyone who donated to the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall, the FCCGH raised over $3,500! All of these donations will be used to support maintenance and improvement of our Grange Hall. Unlike previous years, the Friends don’t expect to need to pass on some of the proceeds to cover the operating deficit of the Grange. This partly due to no longer having to pay property tax to the Town of Berlin, and also to the increasing number of rentals filling the Grange Calendar.
The Friends met on Thursday evening, 9/8, to begin discussion of plans for the next year. There is no shortage of projects–items we discussed include replacing doors in the old entrance, adding insulation and siding on the North gable end wall, improving drainage and insulation for the basement, and many more. We are looking at options for grants to help us leverage the money donated by the Grange and dance communities as matching funds for grants, too.
We also talked about holding another “Family Fun Day” as we did in January of this year–which got universally good reviews! This functioned as a fundraiser, but also as a great community bonding event. Look for more info as we get closer.
The Friends met on Thursday evening, 9/8, to begin discussion of plans for the next year. There is no shortage of projects–items we discussed include replacing doors in the old entrance, adding insulation and siding on the North gable end wall, improving drainage and insulation for the basement, and many more. We are looking at options for grants to help us leverage the money donated by the Grange and dance communities as matching funds for grants, too.
We also talked about holding another “Family Fun Day” as we did in January of this year–which got universally good reviews! This functioned as a fundraiser, but also as a great community bonding event. Look for more info as we get closer.
Thanks to everyone who contributed!
Of course, thanks to the hundreds of people who gave us a few or a lot of dollars. As always, lots of people made this successful fundraiser happen:
Of course, thanks to the hundreds of people who gave us a few or a lot of dollars. As always, lots of people made this successful fundraiser happen:
- Patty Giavara, Chair of the Friends made the “ladder of success” shown here–note that the total ended up as over $3,500, even more than we knew about, thanks to contributions coming in via mail and Paypal contributions!
- Dana Dwinell-Yardley organized another very popular dessert potluck for the dance break, and many people contributed brownies, cakes, cookies, nuts and more. Even more dancers managed to eat almost all of the offerings–and donated to the contribution bowls on the way.
- Ben and Jerry’s donated large boxes of vanilla and strawberry ice cream! Thanks to Todd Taska for picking it up; Thomas Weiss and I dished up this ever-popular treat.
- Rob Nichols grew a lot of beautiful potted plants, which were given for a contribution of $5 or more.
- Our “Challengers” put up $1500 before the fundraiser for the dance and Grange communities–who more than matched it!
- Many volunteers helped with cleanup after the desserts (mostly) disappeared; Merry Shernock helped encourage and coordinate the volunteers–and then took the tablecloths and towels home to launder.
Our stage was beautified for the fundraiser and beyond by yet another contribution from dedicated Grange Chaplain, dancer and volunteer organizer Alison Forrest, who made a border of quilt-type squares to dress up the “proscenium arch” of the stage opening. Combined with the quilts on the back wall, our stage is looking pretty spiffy. The left quilt belongs to my family, the one on the right was made by Charles Martin and Richard DeCosta–and is available for a donation of $400 or more!)
The hall has new paint on all the interior walls. 3 walls have a creamy yellow, and the stage wall a darker color, and all the window and door trim has been re-painted. Many thanks to the volunteer crew, organized by Alison, and including at least Marissa Keller, Joe Blakely, Cynthia Haviland and Todd Taska–and likely others who I have inadvertently left out–let me know and I’ll correct the omissions!
The FCCGH is supporting both of these projects by purchasing the paint and supplies for all the painting–part of the proceeds from last year’s Challenge Fundraiser!
Grange meeting next Saturday will feature celebrations and planning…and then a potluck!
We’ll have our September meeting on the 17th, the 3rd Saturday of the month, to re-start Grange “business” meetings. After this month, we’ll meet on the first Saturday. We’ll start at 4:30 PM–please come on time so we can move through a lot of items:
- Celebrate the fundraiser success!
- Celebrate the completed painting of the interior!
- And the progress on outside spot-scraping and priming!
- Celebrate Marj Power’s most recent award for needlework-from the State Grange
- Planning: continued reaching out to the Berlin community which has shown its support for us–Muzzy Rd. Park maintenance? Putting on community events (like the Family Fun Day sponsored by the FCCGH)–movie nights? Board game nights? Lego nights? I’m borrowing ideas which came up at the FCCGH meeting–there are more.
- Onion River Exchange: Merry will present a proposal for joining this central VT “time bank”
- Organizing the “community bulletin board” on the south wall of the Hall–having it cleaned off for the painting gives us an opportunity to suggest some reduction in the chaos–Merry and I hope to make a first pass before the meeting at distinguishing Grange and non-Grange events, commercial and non-commercial advertising.
- Singalong at 5:30 on October 1 will feature Grange Musician Matt Nunnally at the piano, providing a strong lead for songs like This Land is Your Land, I’ll Fly Away and Blue Skies, plus Merry will teach some “fun rounds about food”!
- Potluck at 6:00: we’ll set up our usual potluck dinner–bring your favorite dishes featuring the harvest of the summer gardens! We’re starting the potluck earlier than we used to, to make for a more relaxed and convivial dinner.